The invention relates to a floating caliper for a disk brake as well as to a brake disk equipped therewith, in particular to a floating-caliper partial-lining disk brake.
The invention preferentially relates to a floating-caliper partial-lining disk brake with two actuating cylinders. Such disk brakes are generally known to the person skilled in the art.
In automobile manufacture, the trend is increasingly towards weight reduction without sacrificing performance and safety.
In floating caliper brakes, such as are under discussion here, two brake shoes are in a known manner pressed from both sides onto the rotating brake disk and the friction forces bring about the braking operation. The friction forces are introduced via the floating caliper into the brake anchor plate. Thus, during braking parts of the brake necessarily have to bend and, when designing brakes, it is a question of achieving the highest possible flexural strength with the lowest possible weight of the brake. This is the object of the present invention.
German Utility Model DE 82 36 515 U1 describes a disk brake, in which the floating caliper has ribs, which increase the flexural strength while simultaneously reducing the weight.
In disk brakes with two actuating cylinders, which are generally known to the person skilled in the art and in which the present invention is preferentially used, it is known in the prior art to support the outer brake lining by means of three supporting fingers, via which the clamping force upon the outer brake lining is introduced.
In the prior art, the bridge of the floating caliper (i.e. the part of the caliper spanning the brake disk) is of a more or less solid construction or is strengthened by ribs in order to achieve the high flexural strength mentioned above. The bridge region of the floating caliper is in said case permanently connected, as a rule integrally cast, with the actuating cylinder or the (two) actuating cylinders.
To achieve the object stated above, the present invention proposes a floating caliper for a disk brake, which floating caliper has at least one actuating cylinder and a brake shoe support lying opposite the latter, characterized in that at least one bridge arm connecting the actuating cylinder to the support is bifurcated.
According to a preferred development of the floating caliper, it is provided that the bifurcated bridge arm is bifurcated in the direction of the brake cylinder into two branches.
The bifurcation, i.e. the point, at which the bridge arm splits into two branches, is preferably disposed in such a way that it lies, in the installed state of the brake, at least approximately above or immediately adjacent to the brake disk.
As stated, the invention is preferentially used in a floating-caliper disk brake with two actuating cylinders, which is known as such. In said case, the bifurcation of at least one bridge arm is designed in such a way that each one of the branches leads to one of the actuating cylinders. In a floating-caliper brake with two actuating cylinders, preferably three bridge arms are provided, wherein preferably the middle bridge arm is bifurcated in the described manner.
At the opposite side of the floating caliper to the actuating cylinders it is preferably provided that the bridge arms are connected by a cross strut constructed integrally with them.
In a particularly preferred manner it is provided that the bridge arms in their longitudinal direction are aligned in each case with a supporting finger of the support, wherein the supporting fingers are substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the bridge arms. Said supporting fingers are therefore used to support and introduce the clamping force in the outer brake shoes. Their being designed in the described manner enables a high stability of the overall system of the brake, in particular a high flexural strength, while further reducing the weight.
A further preferred development of the invention provides that the bridge arms extend separately from one another over substantially the entire distance between the actuating cylinders and the support. In said development, the bridge arms are therefore substantially independent of one another and are connected to one another at the one side of the brake (the side towards the inside of the vehicle) by the two integrally constructed actuating cylinders and at the other side by a relatively narrow cross strut, i.e. a strut lying at right angles to the axial centre plane of the brake. The axial centre plane of disk brakes is defined as the plane, in which the axis of the disk lies and which is the plane of symmetry of the brake. In a brake with two actuating cylinders, said plane therefore extends between the actuating cylinders.
In a preferred manner the fork branches of the bifurcated bridge arm extend, not exactly parallel to the axial plane of symmetry of the brake, but outwards at a slight angle to the latter, e.g. at angles within the range of 3xc2x0 to 15xc2x0.
The outer bridge arms, i.e. the arms on the inlet side and the outlet side of the brake, likewise extend preferably not exactly parallel to the axial plane of symmetry of the brake but at slight angles of inclination, which lie likewise within the previously described range, wherein the inclinations of the branches, on the one hand, and of the said outer bridge arms, on the other hand, are in exactly opposite directions, as is clearly evident from the drawings.
The invention relates also to a disk brake having a floating caliper, which presents at least some of the previously described features.